• Online Features  This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (6)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Pediatrics  • Pediatrics, Other  • Psychiatry  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Flaura K. Winston, MD, PhD; Chiara Baxt, PhD; Nancy L. Kassam-Adams, PhD; Michael R. Elliott, PhD; Michael J. Kallan, MS

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005;159:1074-1079.

Background  Approximately 1 in 4 children hospitalized with injuries from traffic crashes and their parents experience symptoms of acute stress disorder (ASD). These families represent a minority of those exposed to the trauma of a crash. To date, no studies have explored the prevalence of ASD symptoms in the broader population of children and parents exposed to crashes.

Objective  To describe the prevalence of and risk factors for ASD symptoms in children and their driver parents after vehicle crashes.

Design, Setting, and Participants  Cross-sectional study via telephone survey of parent drivers and children (aged 5-15 years), using an exposure-based crash surveillance system. A probability sample of 1091 crashes involving 1483 children weighted to represent 24 376 children in 18 422 crashes was collected.

Main Outcome Measure(s)  Parent-reported ASD symptoms and impairment.

Results  Significant ASD symptoms occurred in 1.6% (95% confidence interval, 0.9%-2.3%) of children in crashes and 4.7% (95% confidence interval, 4.0%-5.5%) of parents. In children, ASD symptoms were independently associated with sustaining an injury and with receiving medical care; in parents, symptoms were independently associated with child injury, child receiving medical care, Hispanic ethnicity, lower income (<$40 000), and higher crash severity.

Conclusions  Sustaining injuries and receiving medical treatment were strong predictors for developing ASD symptoms after crashes but ASD symptoms often occurred in the absence of these risk factors. Health care professionals should consider screening for traumatic stress symptoms in children and their parents when children are involved in traffic crashes, particularly if they sustain injuries.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Pediatrics (Dr Winston) and Biostatistics and Epidemiology (Dr Elliott and Mr Kallan), University of Pennsylvania and TraumaLink (Drs Winston and Kassam-Adams) and Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (Drs Baxt and Kassam-Adams), The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia. Dr Baxt is now with TraumaLink in addition to the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress.

CiteULike    Connotea    Delicious    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Mental health and unintentional injurers: results from the national co-morbidity survey replication
Connorton et al.
Inj. Prev. 2011;17:171-175.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Counterpoint: minor injuries may not be all that minor
Rivara
Inj. Prev. 2011;17:149-150.
FULL TEXT